s. I have made frequent tests of the power of their
senses, and am prepared to say with certainty that such is not the case.
When I visit the Park, I frequently enter at Sixty-fourth Street and
Fifth Avenue, at which place there is a flight of stairs leading from
the street down to a large plazza in front of the Old Armoury; and
something more than a hundred feet from the foot of the stairway, and
nearly at right angles to it, is a window opening into the monkey-house
by the cage occupied by these particular monkeys. When I descend the
stairway and come within view of this window, they frequently see me as
I reach the plazza, and the keeper always knows of my approach by the
conduct of the monkeys, who recognise me the instant I come in sight at
that distance. At other times I have approached the house from another
direction, and come within a few feet of their cage, where I have stood
for some time, in order to ascertain whether they were aware of my
presence; and on a few occasions have slipped into the house with the
crowd, and they did not detect my presence except by sight. It is
evident, if they depended upon the sense of smell, that they would have
discovered my presence when so near them, although they could not see
me. But no matter what the condition of the weather, or how many people
are present, the instant one of them sees me he spreads the news, and
every inmate of the cage rushes to the window and begins to scream at
the top of his voice. If their sense of smell was such as to enable them
to detect my presence as a dog would, it is reasonable also that the
monkey which possessed the most sensitive organs would have been the
first to detect it in each case; whereas, sometimes one monkey, and
sometimes another, made the discovery. It is my belief, however, that
their sense of smell is much more acute than that of man, but far less
so than that of most other animals, especially the dog. [Sidenote:
HEARING VERY DELICATE] The sense of hearing in these animals is very
delicate, as may be seen from the account of Nellie discovering my
footsteps on the lower stairway, and as I have witnessed in scores of
other cases. The same is true also of their sight; their eyes are like a
photo-camera, nothing ever escapes them. I think their organs of taste
are also quite sensitive, as I have made some tests from time to time,
and find them very hard to deceive. The sense of touch, which is rather
obtuse in most animals, is mu